BENJAMIN PLUMMER, Ganges Twp., Allegan Co., Michigan

Contributed 2004 by  Jeffrey Spear (jeffspear@earthlink.net) for use 
in the USGenWeb Archives.

USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE:  These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced 
in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons.  Persons or organizations desiring to use this material,
must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal
representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb
archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given 
permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for 
free access.

History of Allegan and Barry Counties, Michigan, with Illustrations and 
Biographical Sketches of their Prominent Men and Pioneers.
Philadelphia:  D. W. Ensign & Co.  1880.  Press of J. B. Lippincott & 
Co., Philadelphia.

Few residents of the county of Allegan are more familiar with its pioneer history or more 
closely identified with it early interests than is Benjamin Plummer, who, in 1834, became 
a settler within its boundaries.  He was born Nov. 20, 1892, in Maine, having been the 
oldest child of David and Hannah Ames Plummer, both natives of New Hampshire.
  They were for a brief period residents of Pennsylvania, after which they removed to 
Wayne Co., Ohio.  His father having died in 1828, the mother accompanied her son to 
Michigan, where her death occurred in 1857.  Mr. Plummer, in 1827, married Miss 
Elvina Andrews, who was born in Onondaga Co., N. Y., in 1805, her parents having been 
natives of Connecticut, and pioneers to Ohio in 1824.
  Mr. and Mrs. Plummer's family circle embraced seven children, four of whom are now 
living.  Andrew, the second son, has the honor of having been the first white child in 
Saugatuck, wher his parents removed in 1834.  After a residence of twelve years in the 
latter township, where all the deprivations incident to pioneer life were endured, they 
removed to Ganges, their present home.  Both lumbering and farming engaged Mr. 
Plummer's attention here, as had been the case previously.  His original purchase was one 
hundred and fifty acres.  This, by division among his children, has been reduced to fifty, 
which is now cultivated.  During the ravages in 1853 of the cholera in Michigan, Mr. and 
Mrs. Plummer were severely afflicted in the loss of four children in one week.  This 
severe dispensation has marked an era in their lives which is otherwise fraught with many 
happy memories.  Mr. Plummer's political career has not been an eventful one.  He is a 
staunch Republican, though not an office-seeker.